photo via Sportsnet
It was a case of rinse and repeat for the Finnish earlier today. After hammering Slovakia yesterday 8-1, they made it back-to-back victories with a 7-1 trouncing over Kazakhstan at the Werk Arena.
Yesterday, 15 different players got their names on the boxscore, and today was similar with 12 players picked up at least a point. Patrik Puistola (Carolina Hurricanes) led the way with three points in the 7-1 win as he now leads the tournament with seven points.
The Finnish star got the scoring started today at the six-minute mark of the first period. Kristian Tanus put it perfectly onto Puistola’s stick on the doorstep of the Kazakhstan goal making hit harder for him to miss than not score. That lead didn’t last long, however, with Andrei Buyalski responding just four minutes later to tie the game up at 1-1.
Finland did head into the locker room with a 2-1 lead, though, after Tanus restored their lead with a flukey goal. Joonas Oden had his shot stopped, but the rebound came out the Tanus who was facing the other way when the puck his the back of his blade.
After the break, Finland jumped out to a quick 3-1 lead scoring 54 seconds into the second frame. Matias Maccelli (Arizona Coyotes) was given tons of open ice coming over the blueline and fired a shot from the high slot for his first of the tournament. Aku Raty (Arizona Coyotes) then showed great patience to find his brother Aatu Raty on the backdoor for another tap in to make it 4-1.
Team Finland closed out the game for good in the third period. Puistola added his second of the game which was then followed by goals from Mikko Kokkonen (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Kim Nousiainen (LA Kings) to make it a 7-1 final for the Finnish.
The Kazakhstan goaltender, Roman Kalmykov, deserves plenty of credit stopped the Finnish on numerous occasions to stop the score from getting even more out of hand. He honestly didn’t stand much of a chance on any of the goals that were scored.
Next up, Finland takes on Switzerland in their final game of the group stages.
